Deaf community tired of society’s labels

By Tristan Kong

Enough is enough.

It’s time to end confusing labels for people in the deaf community.

You probably have no idea how to refer to deaf people, but there are some labels that are insults to the deaf community.

“Deaf-mute,” “dummy,” “hearing impaired,” “deaf and dumb,” “hearing handicapped,” are hurtful names people in the community are called. Deaf people are like you. They are annoyed when they are labelled by you. Deaf people struggle when they face ignorance every day of their lives.

Stop and think before you label them. Deaf people do not view themselves as people with “disabilities.” They have their own language, culture, values, behavioural norms, arts, education institutions and organizations.

They use sign language (American Sign Language, British Sign Language, French Sign Language, Langue des Signes Quebecoise in Canada, Spanish Sign Language, Russian Sign Languages, Australian Sign Language, etc.) as their first language. There are deaf schools and one deaf university e.g. Gallaudet University.

There is deaf theatre, poetry, jokes, writings, and paintings. There are magazines, journals, books, video/films and television programming by deaf people about their interests or concerns.

There are organized deaf groups in every community as well as national organizations in roughly 125 countries.

There are “peripherals” such as TTYs, caption decoders, flashing alarms and so on.

The list proves that deaf people are part of a cultural and linguistic minority group.  They share a common history, experiences and language.

“Deaf” is the correct word to reflect their identity and culture.

The deaf community disagrees with hearing society’s view on deafness. The public thinks being a deaf person is a medical deficiency that needs to be “fixed” to restore hearing, so that people can be put in the “right place” with hearing society. Negative terms like “hearing impaired” or “hearing handicapped” define the deaf community as having a problem or difficulty.

People in the deaf community do not feel damage in themselves because they already have their language, culture or identity.  They have many reasons to be proud of being deaf.

So no more labelling for the deaf community. Show respect.

Just say “deaf.”

Discloser: Tristan Kong is deaf.